Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI

...a few others, have attracted the most attention in scholarship on the law governing the use of force by states. One region that has received lesser attention is Africa. This is unfortunate because recent developments in Africa are challenging some of the cardinal principles of jus ad bellum. The unfolding crisis in The Gambia is one example. Adama Barrow, a real estate developer, defeated long-term incumbent Yahya Jammeh in the presidential election held on December 1st, 2016. Unexpectedly for an eccentric Gaddafi-like authoritarian leader, who vowed to rule The Gambia...

Syrian troops are battling rebels around Damascus, trying to halt their advance on the capital. The ICC has demanded the extradition of Libya’s Abdullah al-Senussi to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity under Gaddafi’s regime. A UN survey has found that more than $3.9 billion was paid out in bribes in Afghanistan in 2012, amounting to more than double the nation’s domestic revenue. President Obama’s nominee for the director of the CIA, John Brennan, was questioned heavily yesterday during Senate confirmation hearings about drones and torture. As...

The UN has urged Sudan to strengthen human rights efforts with respect to two recently detained political opposition figures. Rebels have captured Syria’s biggest hydro-electric dam and battled army tank units near the center of Damascus. Libya has claimed it is competent to try ex-spy chief under Gaddafi’s regime, Abdullah al-Senussi, though the ICC has called for his extradition to The Hague. The lower house of the French parliament has approved a bill 320-299 to legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The UN is hoping to...

...Compared to other instances of allegations against a Head of State, the time between Min Aung Hlaing’s warrant application and issuance is the lengthiest thus far. The issuing of arrest warrants against Putin and Duterte took less than a month, whereas warrants against Gaddafi and Netanyahu took one month and six months respectively. The wait for a warrant for al-Bashir had previously been the longest (eight months). Historically, international criminal prosecution of Heads of State faced significant setbacks. Efforts following the First World War to prosecute the Ottoman Grand Vizier...

...approach to hate speech is not a prerequisite to functioning democracy. On the contrary, our European friends would argue that democracy is better served by banning such material. Either way, our exceptionalism on this score doesn’t serve us very well. This isn’t any sort of apology for the killing (especially ugly given Stevens’ dedication to the rebel effort against the Gaddafi regime). In the first instance, it’s a recognition of international realities: do we want to take hits like this so that films like that can be made? In the...

...since the uprising against Gaddafi and Kosovo marking five years of independence. Arusha has given a plot of land to the International Criminal Court for it to build the African Chapter of the International Criminal Court, in a bid to attract international organisations and temper the impact of the ICTR’s depature. The Russian Foreign Affairs Minister has finally returned the call to John Kerry, after keeping him waiting for six days to discuss Syria and North Korea’s recent nuclear test. Venezuela’s Foreign Minister has stated that they are willing to...

...fact, China’s principal oil production company, CNOOC, completed its first deepwater production rig—destined for use in the South China Sea—in May of this year. Although China is the destination of 12 percent of Equatorial Guinea’s oil exports, it will not be in a position to displace Western oil companies for years to come. The seizure of Teodorín’s assets in the United States is unlikely to speed the departure of the man who, since Gaddafi’s demise, is the longest-surviving dictator in Africa, nor is it likely to spur dramatic progress toward...

Interesting: Today FIDH and LDH filed a criminal complaint, together with an application to join the proceedings as a civil party against persons unknown before the Court in Paris concerning the responsibility of the company Amesys, a subsidiary of Bull, in relation to acts of torture perpetrated in Libya. This complaint concerns the provision, since 2007, of communication surveillance equipment to Gaddafi’s regime, intended to keep the Libyan population under surveillance. Up until now, there has been very little activity in foreign courts seeking to sue or hold companies legally...

...personal immunity. In 2001, the French Court of Cassation ruled against an order by the Court of Appeal of Paris in relation to the Libyan head of state, Muammar Gaddafi’s complicity in the commission of ‘crimes, regardless of [their] gravity’. The Court of second instance further characterized the decision to recommend the investigation of the complaint as a ‘disregard’ of the ‘customary law on the immunity granted to foreign heads of state […] consistently recognized by international society’. Some two years later, when a complaint was lodged by a civil...

...to replace the murderous Assad regime. Regime change is not the same thing as regime improvement. Moreover, even if a new regime would be generally better than the Assad regime, that does not mean it would not do terrible things to certain disfavored groups. That is a lesson we should have learned in Libya: although no one is shedding tears for the Gaddafi regime, the new Libyan government has proven all too willing to commit atrocities against groups such as the Tawerghans. Indeed, as I discuss in this essay, there...

...Policy’s piece helps explain why Obama might be a little cold on a meeting. A Libyan judge has suspended the trial of Buzeid Dorda, a top intelligence officer in Gaddafi’s regime, after an appeal of unconstitutionality was entered by the defense. The UN has calculated that the Taliban raked in more than $400 million from various sources last year. US missions in Cairo and Benghazi were attacked yesterday, resulting in the loss of at least one State Department official, after protests broke out regarding a film allegedly offensive to Islam....

When I wrote my account of Melinda Taylor and her team’s detention, I somehow missed this gem in the OPCD’s response: 381. The inability of the particular prosecution authorities assigned to the case of Mr. Gaddafi to conduct credible or effective investigations and prosecutions is amply demonstrated by the fact that these same prosecution authorities claimed that an ordinary swatch watch worn by the ICC interpreter, was in fact a ‘spy watch’ (with video or GPS capabilities so hidden that even she and the swatch makers were unaware of them),...